Saturday, February 5, 2011

Who Pays for Ohio University's Stupidity?

Who will pay damages and legal fees to Dr. Gunasekera now that he has won his federal case against OU, Dean Irwin and Provost Krendl?

I was reading through some of the court documents for Dr. Gunasekera's federal lawsuit against Ohio University, Dean Irwin, and Provost Krendl. Last fall Dr. Gunasekera asked for OU to pay his attorney fees since he successfully proved that OU should have given him a name clearing hearing.

I don't know the exact amount OU will ultimately have to pay but Dr. Gunasekera told the court since June 2006 he has "spent over $130,000 in legal fees and costs in litigating my cases against Ohio University, Dean Irwin, and former Provost Krendl." And it's not over yet; the jury trial to determine damages starts on April 25, 2011. Also, we don't know how much OU and the Attorney General has spent in unsuccessfully defending themselves.

So I ask, who pays for OU's costly blunders? I doubt if it comes out of Dean Irwin's or Provost Krendl's pockets. Do students pay? Does the money come out of donations? Do taxpayers pay? I think it is important for everyone to know especially when OU is having so many financial difficulties.

I can't help but notice the irony in the fact that Dean Irwin wound up in court on the losing end; when back at the very beginning of this whole thing (summer 2004) he was so arrogant that he threatened me with court action when I offered information about plagiarism. I should also point out how quick he snapped me with his threat; it was almost as though it was a regular occurrence for him.

John Burns, OU's former Director of Legal Affairs, was right when he wrote in reference to my ordeal: "Ohio University's academic administration and those then serving as media relations personnel did not handle these "accusations" well, mostly by issuing denials and criticizing the graduate student, which of course caused further problems later." You can read John Burns' report here:

Unfortunately, John Burns left out that I was threatened and retaliated against (when Jerrel Mitchell failed to process my application for the PhD program). Also, please note that John Burns was wrong when he wrote that I contacted "former graduate students accusing them of plagiarism in their master's theses and dissertations." That is 100% untrue and I have no idea why he thinks that I contacted and accused students. He is right about the others I contacted, and I will add that I contacted authors who had their work stolen; but, I challenge anyone to show me evidence that I accused former students directly.

10 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Tom, I for one really appreciate what you are doing here. I've run into the same kind of problem at Arizona State University. The ASU College of Engineering is running some sort of scam involving covering up international student cheating and plagiarism while getting locals to foot the bill for their corrupt shenanigans. You've inspired me to come forward and you've kept me sane through all the crap that Arizona State has thrown at me. Please, keep reporting on and drawing attention to this issue - it's a national problem that you are helping to expose here.

I earned my BS in mechanical engineering from ASU in 1992. Please contact me privately as I am very interested in learning more details about your comment above (matrka.4@buckeyemail.osu.edu). If I find out that ASU leaders are engaging in similar unethical behavior like OU leaders, I would ask you to allow me to join you in stopping them.

Have you contacted ASU's accreditors? Even though the Higher Learning Commission probably will do nothing in the long run, it is important to establish a record showing who knew about scam and what they did. It may take awhile, but someday, the leaders involved in scams etc. will be held accountable.

“SPIEGEL: Where does the failure lie? Winnacker: Individually, of course, with Mr. zu Guttenberg, but his dissertation committee at the University of Bayreuth also failed. The entire Ph.D. process involves intense collaboration with the applicant's advisor and an expert appraisal by the committee.”

“The University of Bayreuth, which conferred the doctorate in 2007, revoked Mr. Guttenberg’s academic title, saying he had ‘seriously violated’ the institution’s standards.

Conservatives had hoped that his apology would quell the controversy, but last weekend more than 20,000 scholars from Germany and other parts of Europe sent an open letter to the Chancellery saying that Mrs. Merkel’s continuing support of Mr. Guttenberg was a ‘mockery’ of all those who ‘contribute to scientific advancement in an honest manner.’

‘If the protection of ideas is no longer an important value in our society, then we are gambling away our future,’ the statement said. ‘We do not expect gratitude for our scientific work, but we do demand respect. The scientific community is suffering as a result of the treatment of the Guttenberg case as a trivial offense. As is Germany’s credibility.’”

Plagiarism in Dissertation Costs German Defense Minister His Jobhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/world/europe/02germany.html?_r=2

Former German Minister Moves to Block Publication of University’s Plagiarism Reviewhttp://chronicle.com/blogs/global/former-german-minister-moves-to-block-publication-of-universitys-plagiarism-review/29352

Another German Politician Faces Plagiarism Accusationshttp://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,756760,00.html

Vice Chancellor of the University of Strathclyde was found guilty of plagiarism of his PhD thesis. This was investigated internally and the issue was considered "closed" without publishing any further details about it later. The Union trade of Teachers requested for a probe into the investigation and asked for the report to be made public and there was no answer for that too. His plagiarised thesis is available in the whistle blower website Unileaks recently. I just can't understand how so many things get covered up in UK. How come no one is bothered to investigate upon the allegations set upon the vice chancellor of Strathclyde.